Methods to Track Gift Cards and Similar Items

[Timothy B. Taylor]

Here's an example from my experience:

I purchased some new appliances for my kitchen and received a gift card in
return.

The value of the gift card became a new Asset:Gift-Card that I balanced
against a reduction in my existing Expenses:Appliances. So the net of
Expenses:Appliances showed me what those appliances really cost me.

Then when I used the gift card, for example to buy groceries, it was a
reduction in Asset:Gift-Card balanced against an increase in
Expenses:Groceries.

Eventually (actually pretty quickly) the value of Asset:Gift-Card reached
zero, and was easily hidden from my asset list when I got tired of looking
at it.

Tim

Timothy B. Taylor • taylortb at gmail.com • (571) 252-9024 •
http://taylortb.com

On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 4:24 PM, Paul W. <pfwoolverton at juno.com> wrote:

> I am seeking guidance on methods to track items such as gift cards, gift
> certificates, merchant cards,  bank reward cards, and store-credit cards
> for returned purchases.
>
> On the one hand, these items are a form of income.  As such, I could track
> them as income.
> On the other hand, I use these items  they way I use a credit card to make
> purchases.  As such, I could track them as a credit card.
> Are there other hands with other methods?
>
> I am looking for a simple, consistent method for all of these items so
> that I can easily track when I received the item and its initial value, and
> track the expenditures.  I want to keep all of these items in the same part
> of my account tree.   Rigorous, double-entry accounting is not essential.
> Imbalance on one side of a transaction is OK.
>
> What are the pros and cons of the various methods to track these items?
>
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